Swraj Paul may adopt Alipore zoo

LONDON: Kolkata zoo may soon have a NRI caretaker — billionaire industrialist Lord Swraj Paul.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked Paul to adopt the zoo and financially help with its running to make it a world-class tourist destination — an offer the businessman with an estimated wealth of £2.2 billion sad he was open to.

Paul had donated £1 million to the London Zoo in 1994, helping drag it out of bankruptcy.

He named the zoo after his daughter Ambika, who died of leukaemia at the age of four over four decades ago 40 years ago.

The Caparo chairman said he was keen to adopt the Kolkata zoo way back in 1996 and had also spoken to then chief minister Jyoti Basu about it.

“Basu then fell ill and passed away and my intentions got shelved,” he told Mamata, who called on Paul at his home. “If you can ask the director of the Kolkata Zoo to work out the modalities of how I can help, we can get it started,” Paul added.

Mamata was swift to take up the offer. She asked industrialist Harsh Neotia, who takes a keen interest in the Kolkata zoo and has also recently adopted a tiger there, paying for its care, to visit the London zoo and take a look at how Paul could help.

Paul earlier said that visiting a zoo was his favourite pastime.

“I love to sit and watch children and their parents,” he said. “Zoos are the best places for them to visit.”

The Kolkata zoo has recently undergone renovation and has an open-air reptile house, an enclosure for smaller cats, an information centre and a renovated aviary.

Two giant tortoises gifted from the islands of Seychelles are also part of Kolkata zoo now. Paul lives in Ambika House in London’s Portman Square. It is the same block in which he first rented an apartment in 1966 to be close to Middlesex hospital, where his daughter had been admitted.